Demi Lovato Is Pride 2014’s MVP

Photo courtesy of Philymack

Demi Lovato's "Really Don't Care" video opens with a sound bite from the 21-year-old singer's turn as L.A. Pride's Grand Marshall. "This guy has a 'burn in hell' poster. You don't have to hate because my Jesus loves all."

It's statements like those--delivered via twitter, in person, or in her music--that have made Lovato into a gay icon. "I'm very vocal about a lot of things because I believe in standing up for what I believe in," Lovato tells me. "And if I can relate to and help people, I'll stand up for whatever it is."

It's this outspoken support for the LGBT community, as well as her killer voice and star power that got Demi the nomination for Grand Marshal of the Los Angeles Pride parade. "I wanted to go to Pride and I'd never been before, so that was really exciting for me. The whole day was magical."

It was on location at L.A. Pride where Demi shot the video for "Really Don't Care," a cut off her latest LP, Demi. "It started as a breakup song--I started and thought 'no, no, I don't want this to be negative, I want it to have an empowering message.' So the first thing I thought of was bullying, and when someone's bullying you, you're like, 'I really don't care.' And, then, I thought, 'well Pride, I'm grand marshalling let's shoot the music video there,' so that's exactly what we did."

On Thursday, before introducing the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black at Logo TV's inaugural Trailblazers event, Demi opened up about her family. "I've never spoken about this before, but my grandfather was a trailblazer himself," said Lovato from the podium. "He was brave enough to come out in the 1960s and I feel a lot of my spirit has come from him. He passed away a few years later and I only wish he could have been able to see all the progress that's been made. It's such an honor to be welcomed and embraced by the LGBT community so thank you very much."

This Sunday, Lovato's completing the second leg of her bi-costal Pride go round, headlining NYC Pride's post parade Dance on the Pier. "I am very, very honored to be a part of this and, yeah the performance is going to be really exciting. I have some pretty epic things planned, so I think people are going to be talking; it's a performance that I don't think anyone will forget." After that, Lovato will be gearing up for the North American part of her world tour, which kicks off September 6 in Baltimore.